


Garrus's First Christmas

by Lavender_chan



Series: Christmas 2016 [2]
Category: Mass Effect
Genre: Christmas gift, commander-cullen, masseffectsecretsanta, this is a gift
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-12-24
Updated: 2016-12-24
Packaged: 2018-09-11 20:48:17
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,323
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9021130
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lavender_chan/pseuds/Lavender_chan
Summary: Garrus really doesn't understand human holidays, and Christmas is one that Shepard had to convince him to participate in. Will he finally get what all the holly-jollying is all about?This is a gift for the Mass Effect Secret Santa event!





	

“So an old, fat human breaks into your house and leaves gifts instead of stealing things?” Garrus sounded unsure of this old belief.

Shepard laughed, “Yeah, something like that; old St. Nicholas, or Santa Claus, or Chris Kringle, comes down the chimney on December 24th and delivers gifts to good children and leaves coal for bad children.”

Now Garrus’s eyes narrowed, “Okay, I was with you up to that point, but now you’ve got to be pulling my leg.”

She laughed again, “No, I’m serious, it’s a human holiday belief; I don’t remember why coal, but the idea was that Santa is so giving that he sits up in the North Pole making toys with his elves all year and then takes them all to give them away to good children.”

“And you lie to your young about this until they’re old enough to know better?”

“Geez, Garrus, you make it sound so bad!” The Commander was nearly slapping her knee laughing now, a huge grin lighting up her face.

The last year had been full of a lot of laughs as she and Garrus went through the holidays from both planets; so far, Shepard’s favorite to explain was Christmas.

“I just don’t get it Shepard, why would your culture encourage breaking and entering?”

“It’s not breaking and entering if you _want_ it to happen,” Shepard pointed out.

“Okay, but explain to me about the tree again.” His eyes traveled to the table in front of them as they lounged on her couch, the aquarium setting everything in a blue glow in the low lighting. Shepard’s tree was white—her mother, Hannah Shepard, had sent it to her, hence the color; Hannah thought it was artistic and beautiful, but Shepard still preferred the regular green—and in the blue glow, it looked breathtaking.

Shepard leaned into him and easily found a comfortable place to lay her head as she spoke, “The origin is different based on who you ask; a few religious people think it stands for the everlasting life of their god, a few others think it was a pagan holiday thing, I just like decorating it and putting presents underneath.”

Garrus’s eyes moved now to the small pile of gifts beneath the tree, each with a different name and color bow on it:

Tali had an orange bow, and it was square in shape—if Garrus had to guess, he was sure it was some new tool set. Grunts was soft and squishy with a silver bow; he had seen Shepard buy a plush dinosaur and wondered now if that was what lay behind the colorful paper. Wrex—who wasn’t on the ship at the moment—had both red paper and a red bow, and Garrus didn’t have to guess to know it was a new mod for the krogan’s shotgun. 

Many more spilled around the tree and Garrus tried not to focus on the blue bow that bore his name. It was a box, wrapped in paper, and he had no idea what it could be. The box was—probably—too small for a gun mod, which would have been his first guess for what Shepard would by him for this strange human holiday, but when he asked, she simply smiled coyly and shook her head.

_I’m not telling you; you have to wait for Christmas._

Her words intrigued and frustrated him to no end, but he simply sat with her as a human classic Christmas song surrounded them with _Have yourself a merry little Christmas, let your heart be light…_

“Merry Christmas Eve, Garrus,” Shepard suddenly murmured, leaning into him heavier and Garrus could hear the way her breathing was starting to even out.

“…Merry Christmas Eve, Shepard,” Garrus held her tighter, and let his subvocals purr in his chest in the way that he knew comforted her as she slept.

~*~

There was a small pile of presents waiting for him when he got back to the Main Battery, to his surprise. Shepard had ushered the turian out of her room early so she could go and pass out the gifts that she had purchased, saying that she’d meet him in the Main Battery when she was finished.

Garrus still wasn’t too sure about this human holiday, but he hadn’t seen Shepard that happy in a long while, so he obediently followed her lead.

The small pile was wrapped in all different colors, some looking more ‘Christmassy’ than others, and Garrus supposed the lone parcel that was nothing but butcher paper and packing tape was most likely from Grunt. He found he was right as he slowly started opening each gift, unable to stop the small trill in his subvocals of happiness as he slowly worked through the pile.

A knife from Thane, clothes from Liara—how it was delivered could only be attributed to her being the new Shadow Broker—and lots of gun mods to go around. Despite holding the holiday at arm’s length in favor of curious speculation, he found a warm feeling in his chest from the thoughtfulness. He was even happy that he let Shepard convince him to participate as people started stopping by to thank him for his gifts to them.

Tali sounded ready to cry when she came to thank him for rare Rannoch artifact that he found during his time in C-Sec, and Grunt nearly broke his armor with a hug when Grunt thanked him for the small plastic dinosaurs that Shepard recommended.

Just as he was finishing opening his presents, Shepard came in, a large grin on her face and a light blush on her cheeks. The light sheen of sweat told Garrus she had probably gone a round or two with Zaeed or Jacob downstairs, but her smile lit up the Main Battery.

“I see you lucked out with more presents,” She nodded toward the pile on his cot and he nodded.

“And people seemed happy with mine,” He added.

“Told you,” Shepard smiled, “Its always better to give than receive; gives you some good karma.”

Garrus chuckled before motioning for her to join him on his cot, “Well, I still have one to give out.”

Shepard nodded and pulled out the small box with his name on it, “Open at the same time?”

“Sure.”

He slowly ripped the paper—a guilty pleasure he discovered as he opened the other gifts—and then opened the small black box he found underneath. Inside was a silver chain and small amulet, which was round in shape and carved with turian words.

_May the Spirits guide you back to me._

It was an old mantra from turian culture, a gift given between lovers. Despite his body freezing in place, his chest began to swell with untold emotions and thoughts.

Shepard gasped quietly when she found a similar necklace, this one gold, in her present from him. The metal heart was thick, and carved into it was two dates.

“What are those,” she asked quietly.

Garrus tried to reign in his feelings as he answered, “The first is the date we met; the second was the first time we were together. For turians, both dates are significant when you choose to be with someone romantically, and seriously.”

He was proud of himself for not tripping over his words as she leaned into him, her head bowed as she held the charm in her small hands.

“Garrus, I…” Her voice was too quiet for him to pick a tone up, but when she turned and got on her knees on the cot, he knew how she felt immediately.

The smile beamed up at him as she leaned into him and kissed him, the room humming comfortably from the Main Battery. His arm found its way around her waist as he leaned deeper into the kiss.

“I love you, Vakarian,” She said quietly against his mouth.

“I love you, Shepard,” He responded quietly.

“Merry Christmas.”

**Author's Note:**

> Garrus really doesn't understand human holidays, and Christmas is one that Shepard had to convince him to participate in. Will he finally get what all the holly-jollying is all about?
> 
> This is a gift for the [Mass Effect Secret Santa](masseffectsecretsanta.tumblr.com) event!


End file.
